


Pumpkin Patch Days and Bonfire Nights

by bad_ash10



Series: We've Come a Long Way from Where We Began [9]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Gen, October, Pumpkins, philindaisy family feels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-20
Updated: 2020-10-20
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:12:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,084
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27127027
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bad_ash10/pseuds/bad_ash10
Summary: The Coulson-May family have a little fall fun! Pumpkin patches and bonfires are the best parts of fall, but what's October without carving a few pumpkins?*This is part of a series, but can also stand alone. All you need to know from previous works in the series is that Philinda have essentially adopted Daisy (who comes home to visit between her Shield missions) and they also have a 6-year-old named Lily.
Relationships: Melinda May & Original Character(s), Melinda May & Skye | Daisy Johnson, Phil Coulson & Melinda May & Skye | Daisy Johnson, Phil Coulson & Skye | Daisy Johnson, Phil Coulson/Melinda May, Skye | Daisy Johnson & Original Character(s)
Series: We've Come a Long Way from Where We Began [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/962511
Comments: 19
Kudos: 46





	Pumpkin Patch Days and Bonfire Nights

**Author's Note:**

  * For [edgeoflights](https://archiveofourown.org/users/edgeoflights/gifts).



> Well, I know I'm over a week late, but HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ELLIE!!
> 
> I hope this brings you at least a little happiness today :)

Daisy startled awake and saw a pair of dark blue eyes just inches away from her face. _Lily._

“You’re awake!!” Lily squealed.

Melinda poked her head through the door, obviously looking for the source of the noise. “Lily, I thought I said not to wake your sister up? She just got back from a long mission.”

“I didn’t, mama,” the six-year-old protested. “I was real quiet.”

May gave Daisy a questioning look which Daisy answered with a nod before stretching and rubbing the sleep from her eyes. “She’s telling the truth; she was so quiet I didn’t even hear her come in.”

“See? I didn’t wake her up!”

May simply shook her head and moved on. “Well, since Daisy is awake, why don’t you tell her what adventure we’re going on today?”

“Oooooh. We’re gonna go to the punkin patch!”

* * *

“How do you know if it’s a good pumpkin?” Daisy asked May as they eyed the rows of pumpkins. “Do I need to thump it or something?”

Melinda scoffed and arched an eyebrow. “I’ve never picked out a pumpkin. This was Phil’s idea,” she said with a nod to where Phil and six-year-old Lily were making their way through the field, examining pumpkins one at a time before shaking their heads and moving to the next one.

“So really, what are they looking for?” Daisy picked up a pumpkin by their feet. It was ugly and misshapen. “I don’t know much, but I don’t think this is the one for us.”

“I don’t know. Kinda looks like you,” Melinda deadpanned.

“Ha ha. You’re hilarious,” Daisy said dryly.

May chuckled as she picked up another one, larger than Daisy’s, with a smooth skin and a long, curly stem. “This one looks ok. Maybe this one would work?”

“Mama! Daisy! We found a good one!” Lily yelled across the pumpkin patch, gesturing excitedly at the massive pumpkin Phil was holding proudly.

Daisy shot her sister a thumbs up and a smile. “We better get a move on finding ours then,” she said to Melinda. Grabbing another one she said, “What about this one? It’s a little crooked, but I think it’s cute.”

Melinda shrugged and said with a grin, “Whatever you want. You already know we are going to lose the carving contest.” She nodded toward Phil and Lily who were singing a song about pumpkins as they made their way toward them. “We have a couple of biased judges over there after all.”

* * *

After making it back home, they set to work on their designs. Phil and Lily huddled around the kitchen table, whispering secretively while Melinda and Daisy were standing at the kitchen island, both unsure where to begin.

“Who picked the teams for this?” Daisy whispered.

“Lily. She was obviously playing to win since she picked the only one of us who has _actually_ carved a pumpkin to be her teammate.”

Daisy picked up the knife, “I know we have to take all the seeds out. So, we can start there I guess?” A few moments later she had cut a hole in the top to reveal the inside.

“That smells disgusting.” Melinda said wrinkling her nose and peering into the stringy insides of the pumpkin. “Go ahead, Daisy. This is your op.”

“Gee, thanks,” Daisy snarked. With a deep breath, she plunged her hand into the pumpkin and nearly gagged as her hand found the slimy strings and seeds inside. “I can’t do it.” She shoved the pumpkin toward May.

The two looked to Phil and Lily who were alternating turns pulling out handfuls of pumpkin guts. “You never did this as a kid?” May asked, still looking at their pumpkin like it was something disgusting.

“Orphan, remember? Not high on the list of priorities.”

“I’m sorry, Daisy,” May said sincerely. “I wasn’t thinking.”

Daisy shrugged. “To make up for it, I think you should be the one to pull the guts out of this pumpkin.” At May’s glare, she added teasingly, “You’re Melinda freaking May after all. You can beat a bad guy to a pulp in like 10 seconds. Don’t tell me you’re squeamish about pumpkin guts.”

Melinda’s eyes narrowed further. “I hate that that worked.”

“I know.” Daisy nudged her playfully.

Melinda rolled her eyes, and without further ado, shoved her hand into the pumpkin and withdrew a handful of stringy insides and seeds. They plopped on the countertop with a wet squelch.

Daisy couldn’t suppress her gag this time.

Five minutes later, when Melinda had the inside of the pumpkin clean, or clean enough at least, Daisy grabbed a pencil to draw a design. “What kind of face are we thinking? Classic snaggle-tooth like you see in the movies? A smiley face maybe?”

“What about the SHIELD logo? Or the Zephyr?” May asked.

“Can you draw a plane?” Daisy asked doubtfully.

“No.”

Rolling her eyes, Daisy said, “What about them? Can you see what they’re doing?”

May and Daisy were both trying to catch a glimpse past Phil and Lily who were purposefully blocking their view of the pumpkin. “No cheating, ladies! We heard you talking!” Phil said grinning over his shoulder.

“Yeah, no cheating!” Lily said, sticking her tongue out at them.

May frowned and shook her head at Lily disapprovingly.

Lily dropped her gaze and looked only slightly ashamed. “Sorry, mama.”

“How about a cat face? Some ears, whiskers, and a nose?” Daisy suggested. At May’s shrug, Daisy grabbed a pencil and drew a quick sketch. “How’s that?”

Melinda studied Daisy’s handiwork and gave her an approving nod. “Looks good to me.”

Fifteen minutes and only one minor injury later, they stood back to admire their handiwork, both cocking their heads to the side almost comically as they took in the different sized eyes, the off center nose, and the uneven whiskers they had managed to carve into the pumpkin.

“It’s….. interesting,” May finally said.

Daisy snorted. “We can always say it’s a Picasso.” After a short pause, Daisy continued, “Who knew two people as skilled as we are with knives would be so useless at carving pumpkins?”

May chuckled. “Throwing them and fighting with them are apparently very different from using them to carve pumpkins.” Turning around, she called across the room. “You two almost ready for the judging? We’re done over here.”

“Ready!” Lily called brightly, as she and Phil stood and lifted the pumpkin off the table. He made sure to let her ‘help’ carry it across the room, while still taking care to hide their design from Melinda and Daisy.

“Wait! We can’t see it yet!” Lily squealed. “Hide it! Hide it!” She shut her eyes tightly to keep from ruining the surprise of their design.

“Hold on.” May quickly grabbed a hand towel and draped it over the pumpkin. “Ok, baby, it’s safe to look now.”

Phil was still trying to make his way to the counter to set their pumpkin with May and Daisy’s, but his progress was slowed by Lily and her attempts to help carry the pumpkin. “Lily, go grab another towel for us to hide ours with. Then we can uncover them both at the same time.”

“Mmmkay!” Lily said as she took off across the kitchen.

The three adults shared looks of bemusement and exasperation. Lily’s exuberance and lively personality definitely kept them on their toes, and it was no small effort to keep her somewhat under control when she was this excited.

Soon though, Lily was back and they had the pumpkins staged and ready for their reveals, which Lily insisted that Phil do a countdown before he revealed them both simultaneously.

“In FIVE… FOUR… THREE... TWO… ONE…” He whipped the dish towels off the pumpkins with a flourish to reveal their designs.

Lily giggled seeing Melinda and Daisy's design, but Daisy’s mouth fell open in shock. Phil’s design was shockingly simple but executed extremely well. “What the hell? How is that so good? How did you carve _that_ in the same amount of time it took us to do…. Whatever that is?” she gestured to their sad facsimile of a cat that had been carved into the face of her and Melinda’s pumpkin. “It’s literally perfectly symmetrical! And those eyes are so creepy!”

“Oooh. Daisy, hell is a bad word. I’m not ‘posed to say that.” Lily chimed.

Daisy scooped her sister up and propped her on her hip. Lily would soon be too big to do this, and Daisy took every chance she got to treat Lily as her baby sister, even if she was now in kindergarten. “I know. Neither of us are supposed to say that.” She turned her attention back to Coulson. “But really… how did you carve the skeleton man from that movie? It’s dead on.”

Phil shrugged. “Ok, first, get the name right: it’s _Jack Skellington,”_ he teased before continuing with a grin. “I do have _some_ artistic ability, you know.”

May, too, looked disgruntled by Phil and Lily’s pumpkin. But she managed a smile when she turned to Lily and Daisy. “Well, girls, who’s got your vote as the winner of the contest?”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Daisy chimed. “I think we need to see them lit up before we decide.” She and May knew they would’ve let Lily win regardless of what the pumpkin actually looked like, but Phil’s _Jack Skellington_ pumpkin was a true winner, unlike their lopsided cat.

“Yeah!” Lily wriggled out of Daisy’s arms before wrapping herself around Melinda’s waist and was looking excitedly up at her. “Mama, where’s the candles?”

* * *

An hour later, they had officially declared Phil and Lily the winners of their first ever pumpkin carving contest, and now they were all squished together on the small outdoor sofa, Phil, Melinda, and Daisy sitting side-by-side with Lily stretched across all three of their laps.

To Daisy, there was nothing she looked forward to more than spending a few days at home with her family after a long mission. She had started teaching Lily the names of some constellations over the last few evenings, and Lily was starting to recognize a few.

“Daisy? Is that Ryan? I mean Ryan’s belt?” Lily asked pointing to a few stars just over the tree line.

“It is, but it’s called _Orion’s_ Belt, mèimei.” Daisy answered with a grin. “Great job spotting that one though!”

After a few more constellations, Lily asked Daisy to rub her back, a tell-tale sign the little girl was ready for sleep, and barely a couple of minutes later, Daisy wasn’t surprised when Lily was out like a light.

Afraid to move too much and disturb her sister, Daisy glanced at their parents. Melinda was curled into Phil’s side with her head on his shoulder, though it looked like he was asleep like Lily. Even after seeing the two of them together for the last few years, Daisy couldn’t help but feel a wave of emotion when she caught them in a quiet moment. The two of them deserved happiness after the 30 plus years of pining for one another before the timing finally worked out. Not to mention losing each other on multiple occasions during those years.

Daisy, getting sleepy herself now, carefully leaned over against Melinda, taking care not to jostle Lily who was still stretched out across the three of them.

Melinda hummed contentedly and threaded her fingers through Daisy’s. “I’m glad you’re home for a while, Dais. We missed you while you were on mission,” May whispered to keep from disturbing the two sleeping beauties of the family.

“I know,” Daisy mumbled as she buried her face into Melinda’s sweatshirt. “I missed you guys, too.” The soft crackling and popping of the dying fire was slowly lulling her to sleep. After a moment, she added, “We really should go inside before we end up staying out here all night. The fire is almost out anyway.”

Before she could move though, Melinda wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “Just a few more minutes, Dais. I just want to sit here and enjoy the moment with you guys.”

Daisy tried and failed to stifle a yawn. “Ok, but be warned, if I fall asleep, there’s a good chance I’ll drool on your hoodie,” she added as she burrowed herself further under the blankets.

Melinda chuckled and hugged Daisy tightly, and Daisy had to admit, being curled up with her parents and little sister under piles of blankets by the fire was a perfect way to end a fall day.

**Author's Note:**

> Well if you made it this far, just know that writing this was surprisingly difficult, and didn't turn out exactly how I envisioned. I wanted a cute fall story, and hope you enjoyed reading!
> 
> Also mèimei = little sister.


End file.
